A matter of interpretation

The Twilight Zone is generally regarded as one of the finest television programs ever to light the small screen, Perhaps I am a heretic, but while there are some very good episodes there is a lot of schlock. The acting is generally good, but many times the production values fall way short and the stories seem forced.

I like stories where people grow, usually when at least the main character is a better person in the end than he was in the beginning. Homer Smith (and most of the other main characters) in Lilies of the Field learns that respect and happiness go hand-in-hand. In Akira Kurosawa's Japanese film Ikiru, the protagonist, Kanji Watanabe, finds happiness before he dies half-way through the film -- the balance of the film occurring at his memorial service when those who knew Watanabe discuss what made him made him change so much in his final months.

One of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Big Tall Wish,  was from the first season. It stars Ivan Dixon -- an actor who is always worth the price of admission -- as Bolie Jackson, a never successful fighter with one last chance to make it big. This video review gives an overview of the episode. The video and my comments have spoilers so be forewarned although it is still worth seeing anyway..

I have seen several lists that rank The Big Tall Wish in the bottom third of all episodes. The reviewer in this video rates it highly as do I. However, he sees the episode as most other reviewers see it and that is different from how I see it. Most see it as a paranormal story -- I see it rooted in terra firma. That, to me, makes it better.

Most people see the story as young Henry Temple, brilliantly played by young Steven Perry, as having the ability to make his wishes come true. Henry makes a wish that Bolie wins in this last shot at boxing success, but Bolie rejects the wish and ends up with another in a long line of failures.

In the end, Henry grows up a little bit -- but so does Bolie. There is nothing paranormal about the story. When Bolie switches from lying on the floor of the ring to being declared the winner it is not because Henry's wish took hold -- it was because Bolie was lying stunned and wondering "What if Henry's wish could come true?" When, in his delirium, Bolie tells Henry that wishes do not come true he is not telling Henry -- he is telling himself as he lies on the floor of the ring. Bolie goes home and faces the derision of his neighbors who watched the fight on television. He talks to young Henry who realizes that his wish did not come true. It never did nor could it ever come true.

But that does not matter. Bolie has found inner peace. The smile I see on his face looks like the most contented smile he has worn in years. He has a good relationship with Henry and, I sense that he will have a closer relationship with Henry's single mother. Bolie has realized what is really important and how he already has it.

Someone I knew in high school dropped out to be a boxer. I have tried to look him up but have never found anything about him. He was another in a long line of Bolie Jacksons. May they all find peace.

 

Look what they've done to my shows, ma.

A number of things happen to old television programs when they are run in syndication: they are manipulated in several ways to the point that they have more in common with chopped liver than the show as originally aired.

TV shows now have more commercials than they did in the past. Because of this, TV stations need to find a way to cram more commercials into the same amount of time as the original program. 

The Fight That Changed Boxing

Weekly fights had been a staple of television since the 1940’s. They were seen on the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on NBC until 1960. When NBC canceled the show ABC picked it up, showing fights on Saturday night under the name Fight of the Week.

For many people it was a weekly ritual to watch the fights. Many bars drew in a good business as people came in to watch. Many good bouts were to be seen. The one on Saturday, March 24, 1962 promised to be a good one.

And now a world from our sponsor

I remember when I was young that my family enjoyed the commercials from Hamm's Beer, not that we ever drank the stuff.

When we returned from Germany in 1966, the first Hamm's commercial was this one:



It is nice to see it after all these years.

Dragnet -- Details, Details

Saturday Night, 1972

Among other things, bandleader Neal Hefti is known for the theme song of the mid-1960’s TV show, Batman. Back then, if someone did music for a popular TV show, there had to be an album of music supposedly related to the show. In Hefti’s case, it was an album called “Hefti in Gotham City.” On that album was a cut called “Gotham City Municipal Swing Band.” That cut was an ersatz marching band tune.

 

I don’t know how many dozens of copies that album sold, but “Gotham City Municipal Swing Band” was the type of song that would have been used on small-town radio stations as a sport theme or perhaps on a TV station as a kiddie-show theme. To residence of the San Francisco Bay Area, though, that tune is remembered as the theme of “Creature Features,” KTVU’s weekly horror film show. The host of that show was Bob Wilkins. Bob Wilkins was not your typical horror movie host. No, he was not Elvira, nor was he Svengooly. He was, well, Bob Wilkins:

 

 Bob would spend some of his on camera time reading the TV Guide listings for Saturday night, asking why you were watching him. He was very droll and had a very dry wit. Those things, along with his ever-present cigar, made him a cult favorite in the Bay Area. From the Neal Hefti theme to Wilkins’s arid sense of humor, Creature Features was a part of that long-ago era.

The summer of 1972 was a special time for me. My oldest brother and his wife were living at home; my other brother was home from college, and I was getting ready to enter my junior year in high school. There were a number of things the three of us would gather around and watch together. Saturday night offered the most memorable programs of them all. The night would start with Creature Features on channel 2 from Oakland.

Later in the evening, or night, we would watch – thanks to that modern marvel of cable TV – a late night movie on KCRA from Sacramento. That movie was hosted by a guy named Geoff Wong. Curiously enough, Bob Wilkins used to work for KCRA and hosted a Saturday night movie. When he left, the station showed movies without a host. Their ratings went into the gutter. They asked Wilkins if he might suggest a new host. Wilkins suggested a friend named Geoff Wong. With that, the “Charlie Chan Film Festival was born.

 

 Wong would show old Charlie Chan movies from the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. One week he had as a guest Victor Sen Young. Young, most remembered as playing the cook Hop Sing on the TV show Bonanza, had played Charlie Chan’s number 2 son to Sidney Tolar’s Chan. As I recall, the show was taped on Tuesday. Between the Tuesday taping and the Saturday airing, Young was shot in an attempted plane hijacking when flying out of San Francisco International Airport.

 The regular guests on the show, whether they had anything to do with the old movies or not, tended to wear skimpy attire. Wong was especially happy to have Playboy Playmates as guests.

 One of the fun parts of the show, though, was that Wong offered a secret decoder ring for 25 or 50 cents. Week after week Wong would give a message in code for people to decode with their rings. Of course, my family didn’t need no stinking ring. We would dutifully take down the secret message every week. We had vowed to crack that secret code no matter how long it took. My mother, who had an intense dislike for TV and would never stay up late to watch an old movie, even joined in the quest for the elusive code. It was a family project. Every Sunday morning we would look at the latest message, add it to the previous messages, and see what we could do. I don’t know how many months it took us to crack the code, but we finally did. We were happy we didn’t send in the money.

A few months later, KCRA added the Sherlock Holmes Film Festival to its Saturday Night programming. That would last until about 2 AM. One summer morning I stayed up until dawn; the first time I ever did so. Somewhere I have a slide of the morning sunrise from my bedroom window taken that morning.

 It is hard to believe that this was over forty years ago. Sometimes I feel sorry for young people today who do not have such memory making things. I hope they find some anyway.

A Thing of Beauty

Fay and I need to buy a lotto ticket, for we are on a roll. On two of televisions talent competition programs, our favorites won.  To be precise, the people who should have won, won.

Last week, Candace Glover won American Idol in what had to have been the finest final three in the history of that show.

Tonight, American Idol alumnae Kellie Pickler won the Mirror Ball Trophy on Dancing With the Stars.

Before this season on DWTS I had not been impressed with Pickler. She struck me as a ditzy blond who skated by on her looks. I was wrong. She is talented, hard working, and very personable, all with a sense of innate intelligence. Maybe she is not the most educated person in the world, but there are more than enough of stupid educated people around. She is humble and has worked hard to get where she is.

Did I say she was talented? Pickler was fortunate enough to be teamed with the best dancer/choreographer on DWTS: Derek Hough. Hough choreographed some amazing dances, and he pushed Pickler to the limit. Pickler delivered. 

The two sealed the win last night with what has to be the most beautiful dance ever seen on the program. No one else in the finals came anywhere close. When the judges gave there scores, two of them said that they should have gotten elevens.

This dance is almost a ballet. Please enjoy it, but have the Kleenex close by when you do.

Television Worth Watching

Canadian television has some original shows. One of best of those shows is a program called "Canada Sings"

The idea of the show is to have employees from two different employers do a "Glee Club" performance in competition with employees from another employer. Each group is competing for a prize -- but that prize is to be given to a specific charity chosen by the group. Even though the performances are done by amateurs, most of them are very enjoyable and are very well done.

The performers are not working as professional dancers or singers, although some of them may have experience along those lines. Earlier this year, members of the Royal Canadian Air Force competed. Their charity was an organization to take care of veterans wounded, disabled, or otherwise physically effected by their service. Some of these service men and women performing were musicians, but none of them were dancers. I don't think any of them were singers, either. But they were competing for something that was important to them and, as service people do, they did was expected of them.

Have a box of Kleenex handy.

A Memorable Man

I know that this will be a surprise to regular readers of this blog that I love radio, especially its history. There are some old time radio shows that I really enjoy. About ten years ago, one of my favorite radio actors was to be the guest of honor at a dinner of the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound. Of course I wanted to go, but I wouldn’t know anyone there.

Not wanting to be late, I arrived at the restaurant about forty-five minutes early. I was told that the room was not ready yet but I could wait in the bar. As I entered the bar I saw a man in a suit, an unusual sight in Seattle. What was also unusual about this man was that he stood only four-and-a-half feet tall. I knew I was in the right place.

I must have looked like a fish out of water. This man walked up to me and asked, "Are you here for the REPS dinner?”

After I said that I was, He said, “Well that’s what I am here for, too. Hi, I’m Dick Beals.” I introduced myself and we talked for a few minutes.

I had never heard the name before, but I was to discover that I had heard that voice. Oh, had I heard that voice. Davey from “Davey and Goliath,” Gumby, Speedy Alka Seltzer. If you have ever heard a radio episode of Gunsmoke where there was a young boy, he was the young boy. He played boys in several radio episodes of Dragnet.

It is not his resume that made him memorable to me. What made him memorable was that he was a real, honest, gracious gentleman.  Later in the evening it was still obvious that I really didn’t know anyone in the room. Two hours after our brief conversation in the bar, after he made the keynote speech about the guest of honor, he came over to me and said, “Matt, are you having a good time?” Two hours later,  not only did he come over to see how I was doing, he remembered my name.

In the days following that dinner I found a copy of his autobiography on Amazon.  The book gave insight into what it was like to be a radio actor. The book also told how he managed a Little League team – a team of physically and mentally challenged players – and that team won their league championship. He would not allow anyone to intimidate or demean him. He would treat everyone with respect and expected the same in return. He earned that respect.

Dick Beals was an inspirational man. Even though he stood only four foot six, he stood tall. I only met him that one evening, but it was a memorable meeting for me.

Mr. Beals has passed away at the age of 85. Rest in peace, sir.

Has American Idol Jumped the Shark?

Many people dismiss American Idol and its “manufactured stars,” but I think it is really a great boot camp for future stars. The schedule and the pressure of the show really take a toll on those not ready for a career in show business. It strengthens those who are ready and breaks those who are not.

Let's Form a Company to Import These to North America!

I remember seeing these things when Fay and I were in England two years ago. I thought they looked, er, odd. I guess they don't just look odd....

Television From Another Time

When my father went to Viet Nam in June 1968, my family moved to the town of DuPont, which is right next to Fort Lewis, Washington.

Being a small town, there was not a whole lot going on. On top of that, the winter of 1968-69 was one of the worst winters in years. School was canceled for four days because of the heavy snowfall. Add to that that we were less than three years removed from being English-speaking-TVless when we lived in Germany.

To pass the time, TV became our friend. We started watching syndicated reruns on TV. We found some of them to be rather funny. But what would I think of them many years in the future?

One of the shows we enjoyed was My Favorite Martian. We would laugh at the exploits of Los Angeles newspaper reporter Tim O’Hara (Bill Bixby) and the Martian (Ray Walston) he found. Tim’s landlady was a widow by the name of Mrs. Brown (played by Pamela Britton). In 1969 I thought Mrs. Brown was a ditsy middle-aged woman and I did not think too much about her.

I found the show again in 2000. I had just reclaimed my bachelorhood and, of course, I ordered cable service that included every channel known to man. One night I found an episode of My Favorite Martian. I thought it stank. There was one big surprise, however – Mrs. Brown. The person whom I saw as just as just a ditsy middle-aged woman in 1969 I could now see was an actress playing a ditsy woman. As for the middle-aged part, well, I was now in my mid-40s. Um, I though Mrs. Brown was rather cute, thank you. But the show was terrible. The 1960’s humor of a woman-hungry guy seems disgustingly sexist in 2000.

Another show we used to watch was Car 54, Where Are You? If you have ever seen many early television programs, you know that they make Grade B movies seem like Gone With the Wind. Car 54 certainly fits into that category. The production values, well, what production values?

Joe. E. Brown (Toody) was an old Borsht Belt comedian who couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. His partner was played by Fred Gwynne (Muldoon, later to be Herman Munster). I saw a couple of episodes in 1977, and I still found it funny. I just recently discovered it again. It is still funny. What makes it so funny and so enjoyable? It shows people in everyday life, and they like and respect each other. A commenter on IMDB.COM said that he had a relative who was a police officer who said that Car 54 was more realistic than Adam 12.

Another thing I notice about the show is the black officers in the 53rd Precinct. They belong there. They are not there to make any social statement, they are not there to show how hip and progressive the producers of the show are. They are there because, well, they are there – as well they should be. Godfrey Cambridge got his start on the show. So did Nipsy Russell.

The shortcomings of the show add to the charm of it. Much of the humor is Jewish humor. And it is great. Even the intro to the show is funny, as they show Toody and Muldoon in their patrol car, playing chess, handcuffed together without a key, with Toody trying to write a report not knowing he has sunglasses on, and so on.

Innocent humor from an innocent time.

He Won!

Back in June I did a post about one of the contestants auditioning for this season of America’s Got Talent.” His name was Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. who came on the stage and shocked everyone.

Landau only got better as the season went along. Last night he gave his final judged performance.



The final show was tonight, and, as is custom on the show, he did a performance with one of his idols.



A different type of song than he has been doing, but he still brings the right amount of skill and emotion to it – earning respect from a renowned diva – and getting a standing ovation in the process.

He won it all. Landau certainly had the “I wouldn’t be watching this show if it weren’t for him” vote. His humility was a pleasure to see all season. You could tell how much he cared for the other contestants and how much they cared for him. The right person won, and there was stiff competition this year.

I see an addition to my CD collection in the future.

I Think You Will Like This.

Sometimes on America's Got Talent someone comes along to make all the tripe worth sitting through.



Fay was cooking dinner while I was on my computer. We had AGT on in the background. The segment began, then Landau started to sing. I went over to listen more closely then told Fay she had to come over and hear this guy. I backed up the PVR to the beginning so Fay could see the whole thing. When he started to sing she was as blown away as much as I was.

Of course we have to see what else he can do, but it appears that we have ourselves a front runner.

I made a comment on his Facebook page. Within three minutes my comment was on the second page. He even "liked" my comment.

I hope he can keep it up.

Friday Night Music

Recently I wrote about the current season of American Idol. For the record, I still like it. Negative point? Steven Tyler seems to be the new Paula Abdul. I do not understand how telling everyone that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread would help them. But c’est la vie.

I wondered how the show would go without Simon. It turns out that the show is doing well without Mr. Cowell, thank you. This season we have a dynamite country singer. We have one of the best heavy metal singers you would want to hear – one who even can include Fay and me as fans.

And Jazz. There is a contestant this year who is a great jazz vocalist. If you have ever seen AI before, you have seen contestants bring their guitars and keyboards. This guy brings his string bass.

This week he went way out on a limb and performed “Nature Boy.” Wow. Maybe it takes an old fart and a brilliant young lady to appreciate it.



Casey knows music. He is a musician. Is he perfect? No. But damn he gets into a groove.

Another thing they do this season? Instead of having those insipid group song butchering, er, song and dance performances, they have been pairing off the contestants to sing together at the beginning of the elimination show.

The country guy and the country girl sound like they should already have an album.

But Mr. Jazz? This week he paired with a blond who has not impressed us. She puts a growl in every song whether it needed it or not. We have been waiting for her to go home. Well, this week she teamed with Mr. Jazz.

They bought down the house. I don’t think Ryan Seacrest has ever thrown a performance during the elimination show back to the judges.

I doubt Casey Abrams will win. But he has certainly has opened up the eyes of people to some great music. And perhaps he has given Haley Reinhart her voice as well.

Views on Season Ten

Paula Abdul retired from American Idol two years ago. Simon Cowell retired last year, and they fired Kara DioGuardi. In their places they hired pop diva Jennifer Lopez and rock dinosaur Steve Tyler.

I have enjoyed American Idol for several years now. I even enjoyed Ellen Degeneres last year when she was on the show. I wondered what Ellen could bring to a music program. She may not be a singer, but she is a performer – and I found her advice to the contestants to be wise.

Except for Paula, who may be a very nice person but was absolutely useless as a judge, I liked the regular judges on the show. I wondered if the show would be just as good with the addition of Lopez and Tyler.

It is not..